Coin signal apparatus for telephone pay-stations



' .(No Model.)

S. ALEXANDER. COIN SIGNAL APPARATUS FOR TELEPHONE PAY STATIONS;

Patented Augf6, 1895.

NEED STATES tron.

PATEN COIN SIGNAL APPARATUS FOR TEL EPHONE PAY-STATIONS.

SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 544,0. '7, dated August6, 1895. Application filed November 13, 1893. Serial No. 490,739. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL ALEXANDER, of Hartford, in the county ofHartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Coin Signal Apparatus for Telephone Pay-Stations, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact descripcoin-channels.

tion, whereby anyone skilled in the art can make and use the same.

My invention relates to the class of apparatus which are intended foruse in connection with a set of telephone-instruments for the purpose ofindicating to the central office the prepayment of a toll charged forthe use of the instrument. 1

The object of my invention is to provide a signal apparatus of thisgeneral class which shall be simple and few in its parts and arranged togive a signal that. can be clearly heard and understood, while notrequiring the use of complicated sounding devices.

To this end my invention consists in the details of the several partsmaking up the apparatus as a whole and in the combination of such parts,as more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in theclaims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a detail front view of a set oftelephone-instru ments. Fig. 2 is a detail edge View, with the lowerpart of the back board and the signalbox out in section to show aportion of the Fig. 3 is a detail edge View, in section, of thesignal-box, showing another of the coin-channels. Fig. 4 is a top View,in section, of the signal-box,'showing the construction of the signaldevices. Fig. 5 is a detail edge view,in section, of the signal-box,showing another of the coin-channels.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter a denotes a back board, such asis commonly used to support the magneto call-bell b, the telephone-c,the transmitter d, and the wires which connect the several instrumentsin the set.

A signal-box e is secured to the back board, which preferably forms,also, the back wall of the box, and coin guides or channelsfare arrangedwithin the box, extending, preferably, from the cover g, in which slotsare made to give access to the mouth of each guide or channel. Eachv ofthese guides is so arranged as to allow a coin of a given directly.

denomination and size introduced intothe mouth of the channel tofall bythe force of gravity more or less freely and directly, so as to bethrown against the'wall of the signalbox, and preferably the back wall,with a force depending on the momentum of the coin. The noise made bythe sharp contact of the coin with the inner wall of the sigual-box isconducted at once through such walls to the transmitter and the wireswhich convey the sound to the central station. In order to vary thesound caused by the coin in striking the wall of the box, a hollow spaceh maybe made in the wall and covered with a plate 2' of any suitablematerial, and such cavity and striking-plate are located in suchposition that the coin is thrown directly against the plate. In the sideview of the apparatus, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, a coin, as afive-cent piece, falling through the guide f strikes the back board anddrops intothe money-receptacle at the bottom of the box. Another coin,as a ten-cent piece, falling through the channel f strikes the plate infront of the cavity and then falls into the box. Another guide f (shownin Fig. 3) may have several openings, so that the coin, first strikingagainst the wall of the box, rebounds, strikes again against the wallopposite the cavity, and then drops into the box. Another channel f maybe arranged so that the coin strikes firstagainst the back board at 1-,rebounds and strikes again at 2, and from that rebounds and strikesagain at 3, the cavity being located at 2 and the coin encountering theplain surface of the box at the points 1 and 3.

My invention contemplates providing the surface of the wall withstriking-plates of different materials to intensify or deaden or tochange the sound produced by the contact of the coin, but not to act assignals to give out any distinct note, like a bell.

An important feature of my invention resides in utilizing theconductivity of the back board or of the wall of the box connecteddirectly to the back board as a means of conveying the sound produced bythe sharp contact of a coin with such inner Wall or surface Theinsertion of a striking-plate in front of a cavity or securing itdirectly upon the surface of the inner- Wall comes within and is a partof this main idea.

If necessary to gain the needed impetus.

each coin guide or channel may be arranged so as to wind from side toside of the box before the lower end is reached, this lower end oropening in the lower end of the channel being so directed as todischarge the coin, however, against the wall of the box or of thestriking-plate secured to it.

My invention contemplates also the use of a hammer tripped by the weightof a falling coin and with its end held so as to strike a more or lesssharp blow against the wall of the box.

The signal-box is provided with a sufiicicnt number of coin channels orguides to receive the coins of different denominations, usually of five,ten, twenty-five, fifty cent, and dollar pieces, one or more of thecoins being used in the payment of the toll required.

In order to prevent the use of the wrong coin in any given guideway orchannel an opening through the side of the guideway is made of a size alittle less than the diameter of the coin, which is so placed in theguideway as to roll along it edgewise, this opening being such as willcause a false coin to fall out, while a coin of the proper diameter willpass readily through along the guideway and beyond the trap 7t", andwill then reach the more sharply-inclined portion of the guideway, downwhich it then moves rapidly and through which it is discharged againstthe sounding-board.

In order to prevent a coin dropped into the guideway from reboundingfrom the bottom of the guideway or channel, the inner portion of theguideway is inclined backward slightly, as shown in Fig. 3 of thedrawings, this backwardly-inclined feature preventing any rebounding ofthe coin such as would enable it to bound past the trap 70.

In the operation of my device a person wishing to use the telephone atthe pay-station rings up the central office, calls for the personwauted,'and if the wire is not otherwise in use the operator at thecentral office directs a certain amount to be paid as toll. That amountis then inserted in the upper end of the proper coin-channel and in itsfall strikes the wall of the box and transmits the signal to the centralstation, as described.

My invention greatly simplifies the devices heretofore used for thepurpose of sounding signals within a signal-box of this class andobviates the necessity of any special signalsounding device, as a bellor chime.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a signal sounding device for a telephonepay station, in combination, a backboard, a signal box secured theretoand having a cavity in the wall of the box, a coin guide or channelhaving an opening through the wall of the box and its lower end directedso as to discharge a coin against the cover plate of the cavity, allsubstantially as described.

2. In a signal sounding device for a telephone pay station, incombination, a backboard, a signal box secured thereto, a cavity in theinner wall of the box having a cover plate, and an open guide or channelhavinga series of openings adapted to throw the coin in succession andin alternation against the surface of the box and the cover plate of thecavity, all substantially as described.

3. In combination in a coin signal device for telephone pay stations, aback-board, a signal box secured to said board, a coin channel having abackwardly inclined inlet, the substantially horizontal run with trap inthe side wall, and an inclined runway with its mouth adapted todischarge the coin against the inner Wall of the signal box, allsubstantially as described.

SAMUEL ALEXANDER.

\Vitnesses:

Cans. L. BURDETT, Q. B. JENKINS.

